Holyrood Church (Holy Cross) in Stirling - the oldest building in the city after the Stirling Castle .  It was built in 1129 during the reign of King David I of the Scottish .  King Robert II built an altar in honor of the Holy Cross, and the church became known as the "parish church of the Holy Cross in Sterling" .  Grand fire in March 1405, which destroyed most of the Sterling, did not spare the church .  The oldest surviving part of the building dates back to the year 1414 - the nave, south aisle with round columns in the Scottish style, Gothic arches, the roof with oak beams and a main tower .  The eastern part of the church was built in 1507-1546 g . g .  In this construction participated personally King James IV .  In 1547 there was crowned the son of Mary Stuart, James VI, the future King of England and Scotland united by James I .  The ceremony was conducted the famous pastor of the Reformation John Knox .  Thus, the Church of Holyrood - the only functioning church in Scotland, takes under its arches coronation ceremony . 

The Church has always enjoyed the support and patronage of the royal family of the Stuarts. Perhaps that is why she was able to survive the Scottish Reformation. Church lost jewelry, but it does not suffer the sad fate of most Scottish churches and monasteries have been razed to the ground. On the tower are still visible marks of bullets - traces of a castle siege forces of Oliver Cromwell. During the Reformation, the church was divided by a wall into two halves, the service carried out independently of each other. The partition was removed only in 1936 during the restoration of the church. Also, large-scale restoration works were carried out in the church in the 60s and 90s of the XX century.